I have sensed from the moment that I stepped foot on this campus that I was called here. . . . . in part. . . . to stretch these students into becoming more than they every thought was possible. . . . to start a few fires in their hearts and minds that they cannot ignore, – - – you know, I often believe in my students so much more than they believe in themeselves. . . . . and one wish that I have for them. . . . is that they live out this radical love of Jesus. . . . . without feeling destroyed when others don’t approve.

This is a video that we used in our identity series last year or so at Lifeline (GSM now). . . . and it is a wonderful reminder to me today that God loves you and me so much. . . . . enough that. . . . we don’t have to play the comparison game anymore. . . . that your worth is NOT CONNECTED to others’ dissaproval or. . .  conditional love. . . . .The truth of God’s grace has set you free from those chains of being obsessed with other’s approval. . . . Praise God for that freedom. . . . and live like you are free. . . . because you are!

Watch this video:

My question to you is why does this happen?

As a Cognitive Psychologist, I have studied attention a lot in my career. . . here are just a few findings about attention:

1. We only have a limited supply of it, so we need to be intentional on where it goes
2. Very few things actually CAPTURE our attention
3. We often are not aware of things in our plain sight due to a phenomenon called “inattentional blindness” – that is, . . . because we are giving all of our attention to something else.
4. Attention and awareness are primarily driven by OUR expectations

The questions then becomes. . .How does this relate to this scripture?

Jeremiah 5:21
Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear

Perhaps we do not see God move. . . . because we have no real expectation of seeing Him at all. . . . if our awareness is linked to expectations. . . . how about we start expecting to see Love winning. . . . His kingdom coming. . . the Holy Spirit igniting. . . . seeing opportunities in our Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. . .

Father I pray that we pay more attention to what you are doing all around us. . . . Give us the courage to expect to see you move. . . . please. . . . even as our lives may be in difficult times. . . you say that you are with the brokenhearted. . . . help us to expect you to faithful. . . you always are – thank you!

Well, I am off to the Men’s retreat this weekend – should be amazing. . . . I am off to seek truth – further in . . . deeper. . . and higher than ever before. I am not going to relax, but to engage. . . I can’t wait to hang with men and young men from our church – it is always one of the highlights of the year for me.

May God receive tremendous glory from all that we do in the next 2 days !!!

Some of you have already seen this, but still. . . . here is some truth to hang onto today and this weekend:

Peace be with you –

Last night Elliana read her first book. . . she had made this little 4 word book at school, and brought it home so proud :

Elli

She has been working on her sounds for awhile now, and her school was saying that she was close. Well, I just had to get this on video . . . .

Elliana reading her first book from Ted Bryant on Vimeo.

I love how little kids are so excited to read. . . . what happens to us later on in life?? Or, like me now. . . I love to read, but I do not make time for it. . . . I have too many other things that I also love to do. . .

Have a great day everyone!!

1. What is your shoe size? US 11, UK 10, EU 45 – a little smaller for soccer shoes

2. Predestination or freewill?  Both, I believe that God already has many of our outcomes planned out as far as what will eventually happen, but how we get there, I feel like is largely up to our own freewill – this is complicated, maybe I will do a fuller post on this at some later time.

3. What type of father example did you have growing up? My father was someone who always expressed that he loved us (my two brothers and I), that he just wanted us to try our best, and he was committed to coming to all of the activities that we were a part of, and he tried very hard to lead by example. He served at church, and though we did not have a lot of spiritual conversations, it was clear that a relationship with God was very important to him. . . . . . . He always made it a point to remind us how proud he was of us. . . . . . though my dad and I may disagree on a few things now, . . . I love him so much!

4. If you could take a class at Bethel… what would it be? No, it can’t be one of yours.  I think that it would have to be a class relating to Jesus and the four Gospels. . . I know there is so much in there, and I love reading about Jesus, but sometimes when I read them. . . . I have moments of “oh, I’ve already read this. . . I know what is coming” – you know. . . getting a new spin on it – so, I would love to be able to know more about the contexts, characters, etc… involved.

5. You’ve now demonstrated proficiency at drama and music (ok – dancing too) but which do you enjoy most? By the way, you can watch this video – not sure if that counts as “proficiency in dancing” – but it was a fun way to open up the Innovate conference (~750 pastors from around the country coming to our church to learn about being innovative)

- with that being said. . . . I would have to say that theater is my favorite. . . . maybe it is the psychologist in me, but I love being other people – figuring out how they would act, what they would say, and what they would feel . . . . lots of fun for me

6.  can i get xtra credit for looking at your blog?   No, but. . . good try, and maybe if you write your own blog post about something meaningful to you . . . . and what God has done with that. . . . and I post it . . . now we are talking about something a little extra

7. What’s your favorite book and verse of the Bible, and WHY!? Favorite book. . . . right now. . .  is James b/c it just always speaks to me so deeply – it is so real to me.  Favorite verse John 3:17:

17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

This is my constant reminder to the nature of Jesus Christ and God the Father – their first priority (and thus, mine) is to show love to others long before there is ANY judgement of their actions, looks, beliefs, speech, etc…

8. Were you expecting to hear from me? I was hoping Stephen – you are a great friend, someone in whom I have high confidence in what God is and will do through your life – thanks for dropping by

Thanks everyone – let’s see what the next few months bring!

Breathe in . . . . . Breathe out. . . . . . now watch:

Thank you Corey for the video -

Every now and then I get emails from a student wanting to show a youtube video of this or that. . . . a lot of the time they are just funny, or silly, etc….., but I was surprised to find this one the other day from one of my freshman. . . . for a moment I had forgotten the era that I was in. . . I was not a huge fan of this show, but I watched every now and then, and this is something that I needed to see and hear today

A long time ago I watched this really good episode on Touched by an Angel, I’m sure you remember the show.  Well I found the ending to it and it is a really touching story.  The episode is about this little boy named Petey that finds out that he has cystic fibrosis and has only a short time to live.  Petey told his parents that he wants to die at home, and that he also made a list of things to do before he dies. His items include:

Learn to play the piano,  find a home for Fluffy (his pet iguana), find someone to sing with Mom,  find someone to shovel the snow.   Celine Dion tells Petey and his mom that she will sing a song for Petey.  Peteys mom finished writing the song and told Petey to cross it off the list. 

There were two items on the list.  The second to last was that he wanted a flag put up that said Petey Lives Here.  There was only one item left on the list then, Go to Heaven.  This video shows the last part of the episode when Petey dies and they cross off the last item on the list for him.  I knew you were into youtube videos and such so i thought you would be interested in this one because it had a really powerful story and it was really touching how all Petey’s neighbors gathered at his house to sing the song to him before God took him to heaven…

This just reminded me. . . . . . . . anything on my childhood list of dreams that I have not gotten to yet?. . . . why not?. . . . . . . . what am I waiting for?. . . . Maybe it can’t happen tomorrow or the next day, but maybe I should re-open the dreams God placed on me when I was little. . . .

Can you believe this has almost 5 million hits. . . . I love the muppets. . . my brother-in-law reminded me of this the other day – ha!!! Let’s the start the day off with some Mahna Mahna

This post was suggested and dedicated to my wife, the mother of my children. . . . and too often – the invisible woman. . . I am so proud of her, and I am so honored to be her husband!

Go and build!

I ran across this video earlier today and wanted to show you guys. It’s from Vimeo, which, I am sure alot of you already know. . . is like youtube. . . but the videos can be bigger, longer, and of better quality -

Too much candy from Capucha on Vimeo.

What comes to your mind first??

How cute this is? Yeah – me too, especially because I have kids that have attempted some of this

You know what came next in my mind though . . . .

How I may be doing this hiding in my own life?. . . Yes, it is very cute – don’t get me wrong, but I am just letting you in on where my mind went next. . . . . . . . . .  we ALL have the ability to hide things from others, and we become very good. . . . . ok. . . . unbelievably good at getting rid of incriminating evidence. . . . . . . . Can I just say one thing. . . . . . . are we tired yet??!. . . . I AM. . . . what’s the point, we’re just hurting ourselves!. . . . let’s let it go today. . . . . . . .  I know that it makes little to no sense at all, . . . . but. . . . . . . God’s love doesn’t care about our baggage, . . . . . . seriously. . . . I think He’s just waiting and hoping for us to hand it over to Him, so that we can get onto our FLIGHT. . . . . . Here you go God, . . . . . I give _______________________ to you today, . . . . . I’m ready to get back on board. . . .Thank you. . .